Comments:
This is actually a revision of a video I first made during winter break of 2000. I had finally picked up the "Rurouni Kenshin" OVA series on DVD (nice video transfer ADV.. sucky subtitles), and was ready to start the project I had been planning for a while.

At the time, I was limited to capturing at 320x240, and was still relatively new to creating music videos. Thus, other than distributing it on my personal website, I never really brought it to the public attention of anyone in the video community, simply because while I liked the final product, I felt it didn't live up to my full dreams for it.

Anyway, now it's August of 2001, and the revision is done. I had originally upgraded my version of Adobe Premiere a mere 2 weeks before Otakon.. and decided to enter in this video. On to a quick revision of it for the show! Unfortunately, having to do a video in a mere two weeks, even a revision of a preexisting video, is NOT a good idea, and I unfortunately had to made some compromises in the final product to get it out, in time.

So it didn't make it into the main competition. Look for it on overflow tape three.

So, with the back history explained, let me tell you a little bit about the video, itself.

I've been a fan of "Rurouni Kenshin" for quite some time. In fact, when I first saw the OVA back at Otakon 1999, I *knew* that some day, I'd use this series to do some kind of project (I wasn't yet into music videos, but I fell in love with it THAT much). The inner torment of Himura Kenshin / Hitokiri Battousai was always something that fully intrigued me. In addition to this, after taking a course in Japanese history at my university, I was even more committed to re-doing this video and trying to fully explain the horror that Kenshin goes through in his mind.

I tried my best to make some explicit "recollections" going on in Kenshin's mind during the video, making some switches back and forth between his past, and his present. I made a lot of subtle timing, so if you blink, you might miss something ^^. I'm not very happy with some of the transitions, as I wasn't quite used to the new version of Premiere as I made the video, and I was pressed for time. Also, I realized after encoding the final version, that I re-used the scene of a close-up on Kenshin's eye during the final battle (doing different parts of the video two weeks apart will make you forget what scenes you have and have not used).

I think I did a much better job of synching up lyrics with on-screen events in this version, as well. To compare, if you're ever interested, feel free to check out the old (very dark; as in on-screen the colors are dark) version on my website ("Daizenshuu EX" - http://vegex.pokeball.net).